EDMONTON, AB – The NDP plan to freeze tuition is irresponsible and fails to protect students and taxpayers from the growing costs of education, Wildrose Advanced Education Shadow Minister Wes Taylor said.
Advanced Education Minister Lori Sigurdson announced last week the NDP is poised to put an “absolute freeze” on all tuition. Taylor said the NDP plan is unreasonable, over-exposes taxpayers to risk and ignores advice from student leaders and administrators.
“Education must be affordable and accessible for all Albertans, but the post-secondary system must be sustainable and efficient as well, which is why the Wildrose plan would keep rising tuition costs under control by indexing them to the rate of inflation,” Taylor said. “The Wildrose plan is a sound, reasonable approach that protects students and taxpayers from the skyrocketing costs of education.”
Wildrose promised to limit tuition and fee increases (including non-instructional fees) to the rate of inflation to ensure students are protected from unreasonable cost increases and not expose our universities to funding decreases.
Taylor said the NDP must clearly explain how they will fund their tuition freeze promise, if they insist on pushing ahead with it.
“With Alberta staring at the largest deficit in its history, Albertans deserve to know exactly how the NDP will pay for this,” Taylor said. “I’m heartened to see students, administrators, educators and policy minds agree with the need for an indexed tuition cap over a freeze, and I encourage the NDP to adopt our plan for a fiscally sustainable post-secondary system.”